'Monumentally unfair': Republican senator SLAMS Biden's student debt forgiveness plan

Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri slammed President Joe Biden's plan to forgive thousands of dollars of student loans as "monumentally unfair" to people who have already paid back their debt or didn't attend college.

During a Sunday appearance on ABC's "This Week," Blunt told host George Stephanopoulos that while "education is important," the administration's plan to forgive $10,000 in debt for individuals making under $125k/year and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients is "just bad economics."

"I just thought it was monumentally unfair; unfair to people who didn’t go to college because they didn’t think they could afford it, unfair to people who pay their loans back, unfair to people who got higher education in an area that the government didn't make loans, and just bad economics," Blunt told Stephanopoulos.

"In addition to that, I think it’s going to have a long-term devastating effect on a student loan program that worked pretty effectively until about 10 years ago, when the federal government assumed responsibility for that program," he added.

"Most economists who've looked at it said it's not going to increase inflation," argued Stephanopoulos.

"Well, if that's what they're thinking, most economists are wrong," replied the senator, arguing that the massive forgiveness of debt will artificially inflate the amount of money in circulation.

"You can't forgive that much debt and assume people won't spend the money for other things. It's certainly going to take about $24 billion that should have been coming into the federal government every year in payments, and make that available for more spending."

"You got three, to maybe $500 billion going back into the economy in 10 years, at a time when the Federal Reserve Chairman is saying we've got to do everything we can to slow the economy down," Blunt continued. "You don't slow the economy down by forgiving debt and giving people another $24 billion to spend that they would have been spending paying off the student debt that they borrowed."

Blunt, who has been an advocate for Pell Grants in Congress, also spoke of his fear that the federal grants for students with more severe financial hardships will be negatively impacted.

"Pell Grants matter. I've been one of the great advocates in the Congress for well over a decade. Pell Grants help people go to school who can't afford to go to school. Pell Grant recipients are going to be treated differently in this way than others. But there's a way to do this that's fair to people who have a challenge going to college and doesn't wind up forgiving debt of people who could have a joint filing where one of the people is currently not working and the other one makes $250,000 and they can get $20,000 forgiven by the federal government. That's just wrong."

According to the senator, the Pell Grant could be funded for over 10 years with the costs associated with the proposed forgiveness program.